


Upbringing

by lerums



Series: Steve, Tony and their heir [12]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man (Tom Holland Movies), The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: An altered version though, Brief mention of civil war, Bucky never killed anyone, Civil war was more civil, Everybody Lives, Fluff, Gen, Growing Up, Kid Fic, Kid Peter Parker, M/M, One-Shots, Parent Steve Rogers, Parent Tony Stark, Tony and Steve are avengers though, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, everyone is happy, peter has no powers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-04
Updated: 2019-08-04
Packaged: 2020-07-31 06:24:33
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,147
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20110603
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lerums/pseuds/lerums
Summary: One-shots from each year of Peter Stark-Rogers' life, from age 1 to age 13 (1.5 years before part one of this series).Nothing hurts too much in this story, almost exclusively fluff!You don't have to read the previous parts of the "Steve, Tony and their heir" series to get this, although they all belong together.





	Upbringing

2002

“He’s mine, Steve.”

“I know. All yours.”

“I’m taking home, there’s no question about it. I… I get it if you don’t want to… To help. I-” Tony looked guilty. So Steve was right in his suspicions, then. Tony obviously wanted this time alone with his son.

“Yeah, I… I expected that. I want you to know I’m here for you, and I totally get that you probably want the house to yourself now that he’s there and-”

“Well I certainly don’t want it, I mean, you’re certainly welcome to… To join this… This gang, this… Family.” 

“Wait, you don’t want me to… Pack up?”

“Well if you should find some part of yourself wishing for that family life, we’re definitely happy to have you part of it. But I’m not sure, you know, we never talked about it. And I know you love him already, after these days in hospital. I’ve seen you with him and... I think it’s the most beautiful pair I’ve observed. But we haven’t been an item for that long, so I guess I’m offering you a way out, because Peter? He’s my priority now, my number one. And you know, we’d survive if you don’t see yourself as a… As a father. I guess I’m asking you to choose between being uncle Steve or… Papa. Or, you know, some other alternative to daddy?”

“I… Tony, do you really trust me with this?”

“Of course I do Steve,” 

Steve’s heart felt like it would burst any second then. Would he really? Did he really mean…?

“Are you sure? You’re serious, you want me there?”

Tony looked a bit unsure the second time he was asked. “I mean… Yeah, I’d like that. Only if you’d want that too, of course!”

“Then I think papa sounds like the most honorable title I can ever receive.”

“Then let’s go pack up our son’s things, love”

“Yeah, our son. All ours.”

-

2003

“Tony?”

“Hmm?”

“I love our jobs.”

Tony placed his hand on top of Steve’s on the stroller handle, rubbing his thumb on it. “Yeah? What part? I mean, I for one am not a fan of all the danger we put ourselves in, especially with Peter,” Tony started rambling a bit like he so often did, so Steve cut him off.

“Yeah, we’ve had that conversation too many times in the past year, it’s not that. Think about it, if you still had your CEO position in SI, there’d be so many days where we didn’t see you at all, you’d be working so much. Especially Peter, you’d barely make bedtime on a normal day if what I hear from Pepper is true. Look at us now, taking a stroll in Toronto during naptime just because we can.”

Steve originally thought Tony would’ve coaxed him into working for SI, and he wouldn’t have hated it. He could be in human resources, or maybe public relations. He was good with people, and his captain america title helped him along in whatever he wanted to achieve. It’d be hard putting Peter in daycare, though, and it’s not like they needed the extra income. No, Tony’s ownership of his company in addition to their roles as avengers were more than enough income and activity when Peter was this small.

They weren’t in Toronto for any reason other than it not being New York. Peter wasn’t a secret from the public, but they kept him away from the spotlight. As happy as they were with that decision, it wasn’t exactly easy to put Peter in his stroller and walk him to sleep while not being noticed in the big apple. Neither Tony nor Steve had ever been into slow walks in their daily routine before, but in the year they’d had Peter, the pair had learned it was one of his favourite things to do. Whether he was sitting up to look around or snuggled back into the darkness under the canopy to nap, Peter was never as well behaved as in his stroller. That had led to excursions. Sometimes they took the car to a remote park, and other times they took a plane to a whole other city, state, or in this case, country. There were no planned missions for a few days, so the little family had decided to enjoy a few days away from the daily bustle at home. 

At Steve’s reasoning for liking their occupations, Tony squeezed Steve’s hand. “Yeah, I guess you’re right about that. Hey, want to go for cake in that café over there? I’m craving cake.”

-

2004

“Daddy, look! Look, me an’ papa found all the shells!”

Tony looked up from his work only to see Peter turning a bucket upside down over the couch. Slightly broken sea shells were tumbling out, along with sand. Lots and lots of sand. On the fabric couch.

“No, Peter!” Steve was right on Peter’s heels, but too late to stop the child from smoothing the shells out, making sure to rub the sand properly into the cushion. 

“Oh, Pete…”

Ten minutes later the pair found themselves giving up on removing sand from everything. They’d gotten the trail the kid had left behind from the door to the living room, but the couch cushion seemed irreparable. It felt like a hand scrub to tub at it.

“All right, Pete, you can come here now.” Peter turned towards the rest of the living room again, after standing with his face in the corner. He was dressed in a new pull up, all his sandy clothes having been removed before timeout started.

“Do you remember what I told you to do when the elevator came upstairs?”

“Shout fo’ daddy?”

“I did tell you to yell for daddy, yeah, do you remember why I told you to yell?”

“So I stand still?” The pout on Peter’s face was steadily growing. He was sitting on Steve’s lap, not daring to face anyone.

“Peter, look at me.”

Peter peeked up carefully at first, then more sure of himself after he saw the calmness mixed into Steve’s stern face. “Do you remember that I told you why you should stand still?”

Peter whispered “all sandy”, and let his head drop again. Steve was quick to lift it back up with a finger under his son’s chin.

“You ignored what I told you to do and created a mess in the house and most importantly on the couch. What do you tell us, Peter?”

“I’m sowwy papa, I’m sowwy daddy.”

After this, Peter received big hugs from both fathers. “It’s all right. You’re forgiven now, it’ll be alright. How ‘bout we go get your pajamas now, then start to cook dinner? You can help daddy carry the plates if you’re careful!”

-

2005

Tony was asleep, but lightly so. That was probably the reason why a slither of light woke him despite it being the middle of the night. He knew it was Peter coming in, no one else was in the penthouse as Steve was on a washington trip. “Pete?”

As of late, the four year old had made himself a habit of waking up in the middle of the night. When they asked the newly installed FRIDAY about his sleeping habits, she informed them that Peter had his lightest period of sleep around five am. He didn’t always wake all the way up but Peter had figured out he could get away with sneaking into Steve and Tony’s bed. At least the nights when Steve was away. He’d been travelling a lot lately. Being the official leader for the avengers when in combat had its downsides, especially after the sokovia fight. When Steve was home, Peter didn’t come in until Steve was almost waking up anyway, so he’d be a lot more energized and ready to deal with a clingy four year old.

“I can’t sleep daddy, and I really miss papa, can I stay here?”

Tony let out a small sigh. He really should get better at letting Peter down. “You’re supposed to stay in your bed, you know. When you wake me like this I can’t fall back asleep while you can just lay down and sleep again, so really I think-” 

Peter let out an excited gasp. “You can’t sleep either? Me too! Hey daddy, the little hand is at five now so we can call papa!”

Tony’s brain wasn’t functioning properly yet, and he was still processing the shift in Peter’s attitude when the kid demanded Friday to “call papa! With the face too, not just so he can hear!” The bedroom screen came to life, and Tony shielded his eyes from the intense light with one arm, holding loosely onto Peter with the other. The kid had climbed onto his parents’ bed and over Tony in just a few seconds, and was bouncing slightly on his knees by his dad’s side. 

“Tony, what’s up? Do I need to come home?”

“Papa, hi!”

Tony gave up. Peter was practically vibrating beside him at that point, extremely happy to have both parents awake. “You know what, I give up. Good night. Steve, make sure he falls asleep… Or at least doesn’t die until it’s the morning for real.”

-

2006

Peter was running. He ran through the corridor all the way to one end, before running all the way to the other end. Most of the doors were slightly open, just enough for Peter to peek in as he zoomed by. He’d been practising his running loads lately, his goal being to become the best in his class at soccer. He needed to be fast for that, uncle Sam had told him. 

It was daddy who had suggested he train some more, that day. Peter still thought it was kinda weird, because all he’d heard the past week was how he had to be quiet and stay still on his father’s wedding day. Peter had been looking towards the day with dread, as it was an accumulation of all the worst things in life. He’d been told he needed to be calm and listen to an old man speak, he had to dress in a tight suit. Later on they’d be taking loads of pictures where Peter would have to do as he was told, and then they were having some kind of meat dinner with a sauce he didn’t like. The only bright spot in the day would be chocolatey dessert, and even the name of that sounded strange to Peter.

The day was turning out to be better than expected so far, though. They were in a hotel where the concierge had snuck mints into his pocket when the other adults weren’t looking. Then, after eating them all, he’d been told there was a while to wait so he could run off some steam in the hallway. He could never really understand what they all meant by running off steam, but it always meant he could wriggle and run around as he wished for a while. Maybe the day wouldn’t be so bad, either way?

“Peter, get in here, will you? We need to shower you real quick before getting ready,” uncle Bucky said, head poking through one of the open doors.

-

2007

“I don’t wanna go, papa! Please, can we not go? I promise I’ll keep my room clean the whole week!” Peter pleaded, tugging at Steve’s sweater sleeve to turn him around. Steve wasn’t having it this time, though. The last time they’d been in the same spot, Peter had convinced him to go to the diner next door using fat crocodile tears and a flaming red face. That was two weeks ago. After Steve had called the doctor’s office and apologized their “unfortunate forgetfulness, we’ve just had so much on our plate lately and it slipped my mind to hand the note on the fridge” they’d been given a new appointment for Peter to get his shots.

“If you want to clean your room that’s fine, but you need these quickly done to keep you healthy, you know that. Remember daddy explained to you how they worked?” Steve hoisted the six year old into his arms while talking. He was lucky Peter was distracted easily.

An hour later, they were in the car on their way home. “Hey, on the bright side you get to skip school for the rest of the day!” Steve said to the mirror, Peter scowling back at him. There was a band aid on both of his upper arms, and the six year old’s eyes were red rimmed. “I want daddy.”

Arriving at the tower another hour later, Steve went straight to Tony’s office. He knew better than to argue with the hostile force that was his son at that point in the day. After stopping at a couple of stores on their way back they had reached the point of the day where Peter was most tired. He didn’t have regular naps, but the kid falling asleep on the way home from school wasn’t rare. 

Steve didn’t bother to wait for an answer after knocking, even though he knew Tony had a meeting. It was with the usual group of local department heads of SI, they all saw the family regularly. 

“Sorry to disturb, Tony, but this guy needs you. Preferably five minutes ago.”

Tony turned around, first looking a little annoyed. That look softened fast as he saw his son barreling towards him. “Dad! Papa took me to have shots today, and then we couldn’t even go home ‘cause he was doing the shoppings as well and don’t you think…” Peter started to babble on, and Tony looked towards his husband. He cocked his head, silently asking if “the shoppings” was the errands Tony was supposed to run later, and had dreaded taking Peter to. Steve gave a small smile in return.

“Listen, kiddo. I think we should let papa get some rest right now. How ‘bout you go in my desk drawer and fish out the StarkPad? You can hang out with me, this is my last meeting,”

As Peter busied himself by Tony’s desk, Tony ushered Steve out with a small squeeze of his arm.

-

2008

Tony stood in the doorway of Peter’s room. The child was packing a few of his favourite figures for his weekend at uncle Bucky’s house. Speaking of Barnes, Tony could hear the familiar sounds of his boots coming up the stairs. He turned around to meet him further down the hall, giving Peter some privacy.

“He ready to go yet?” Barnes had a passive look on his face. Tony had never been able to read his husband’s best friends’ look, and with the situation at hand Barnes was like a stranger.

“Almost, give him a couple of minutes. What’s the asshole’s excuse this time?”

Tony stared intently at Barnes, who met his eyes for the first time. “Don’t make this harder than it is, Stark. You know you guys meeting wouldn’t end well right now, he just doesn’t wanna do that to Peter.”

Tony scoffed. “You know damn well it would be fine if he actually made an effort. You know, he keeps talking of not letting this affect Peter, but the kid is seven years old, man. He notices that we haven’t seen each other in months, he’s not an idiot. If Steve wanted this not to affect Peter, he would get his shit together and look me in the eye. No, this is Steve being a coward. This is him not bothering to hide his distaste of me, even from Peter. He keeps texting me, you know? Wanting to make things right? Saying how I need to make the first step here, as if I’m in the wrong. He knows damn well everything I’ve done has been for the best of everyone around me, the accords weren’t perfect but they were something. Something to make the situation bearable for the moment. He knows damn well that what I did was the best choice, and that he acted in regards to himself, and himself only.”

Tony’s rant was broken by Peter’s door opening, the boy struggling to carry his duffel. “I’m ready to go! Dad, do you think papa’s missed me?”

“Yeah, pete. I know he has, a lot.”

-

2009

“Hey, I was wondering, should we go out for a late lunch after the session?”

Tony furrowed his brows. He was already on his way to the couples therapist’s office. “Steve, you know I have to pick up pete then. I literally always pick him up right after, how can you forget?”

There was a snort on the phone. “Yeah, I know pete’s out of school. I was thinking of maybe bringing him? Eat as a family?”

They brought Peter to lunch after their therapy session. They’d gone on a few dates, and concluded that they were ready for Peter to be brought into the developments.

Five months after the disastrous falling out, things were moving in the right direction.

-

2010

“Dad, look! Look at the green one, we’re taking that one first!”

Their little convoy was pulling up to the theme park, slowing down by the drop off zone. It still felt slightly weird to Steve, having so many people around them. In addition to the trio, they had brought Sam and Bucky. Their security procedures included six guards in such places. It seemed a bit excessive, but Steve didn’t argue on it. Not when it was a matter of Peter’s security.

-

2011

“Papa, I finished my homework already, can I go to Ned’s?”

Steve was caught off guard, and jumped slightly as Peter spoke from the doorway. 

“Yeah, sure, I don’t see why not. Let me check it first, though. Alright?” Peter sighed heavily as he turned to get his books from the kitchen.

A few minutes later, Steve was humming at the homework plan. “It says here you have reading homework, and your teacher said that included reading out loud. Did you read to dad then?” Steve knew he hadn’t, Tony was deep in his second day of a workshop binge. They were rare nowadays, but they happened. Steve would drag him out later that night.

Peter rolled his eyes and sunk back into the couch.

“No, but pops, no one ever reads out loud! We read out loud in class, that’s enough, even Ned says so,” Peter started arguing, trying to swat his father’s hands away as Steve reached into the backpack for Peter’s english book.

“Bud, it’s only a couple of pages long. Your teacher said it was important for everyone to practise their pronunciation as you read, we just talked about it last week in the meeting. She says you’re still stumbling a bit over some longer words. That’s okay, it happens, but it only proves your need to practise.”

“But papaaa! I wanna go to Ned’s, we already made plans!”

“That’s great, now you’d already be halfway down the first page if you’d started reading right away. You wanna argue some more first, or get started?”

-

2012

“Hey, Petey,” Peter heard. His eyes were closed, but he recognised the voice of his dad without any effort. “Welcome back to the land of the living, you had us pretty worried for a while there,”

His eyes landed on Tony as soon as he managed to open them. He looked tired, but happy. Calm. One of his hands were in Peters hair, and Peter leaned into the touch.

“Papa’s just gone down to the cafeteria to pick up some snacks, he’ll be right up,” dad explained. Peter furrowed his brows. He couldn’t remember anything after being outside for lunch, playing tag in the playground castle. He hadn’t been sick, yet he recognised the surroundings as the emergency room. Now that he thought of it, his head kinda hurt, and the room was spinning slightly as he tried to sit up.

“No, Peter, stay horizontal, please. You’ll just make yourself sick. You’ve got yourself a nasty concussion there, does your head hurt a lot?”

Peter could only whisper an affrmative, he didn’t have the energy for much else. 

A few minutes later, after receiving an explanation of his swan dive to the ground at school, Tony turned his back to open the door for Steve. In his excitement to see his papa, Peter forgot all about his headache to sit up in bed. He jumped up on his knees, causing Tony’s head to whip around instantly.

For months after, Tony didn’t stop bragging about his “ninja-like reflexes” as he thrust the kidney dish under Peter’s face. After Peter had thrown up the remnants of his lunch and was lying on his pillow, no sheets needed washing. Except for half an hour later, when Peter tried sitting up again, and there was no kidney dish closeby.

-

2013

Peter was getting impatient, he heard the microwave beeping five whole minutes ago, carrying drinks and snacks to the living room shouldn’t take that long! He sighed to himself, going towards the kitchen to see what was holding his parents up. 

“Hmmf, hmmbabe… He’s waiting, it’s… Hmmm” Steve was leaning back against the counter as Tony took hold of his hair, effectively shutting Steve up with another forceful kiss. It seemed hands were flying everywhere, Steve couldn’t keep up with who was touching where. All he was sure of were those unbelievable soft lips against his, and since it was pajama movie night, he could feel a slowly hardening little guy rubbing at his thigh through Tony’s thin sweatpants. Not that anything would happen, they were in the kitchen hours before their son’s bedtime. Blood was rushing in his ears as the spontaneous make out session continued. 

That’s at least what he blamed in hindsight, for not hearing Peter come into the kitchen. A disgusted sound tore them apart in milliseconds. The twelve year old was in the doorway, annoyed as ever, when Tony noticed him and started laughing. “No no, not cool, dad! I come in here expecting you to be buttering popcorn and I find you… That? Ew, dad! Ew, papa! Lame!”

That spurred on Steve’s laughter too. He hadn’t been far from breaking, but the immaturity made him giggle. “But pete, we just love each other soo much! I love your dad so much I’m gonna burst,” he had reached Peter in the doorway, and was leading them to the living room couch with the popcorn bowl in hand.

“So sometimes I’ve just got to kiss him a little, and he has to with me too!” Steve said, plopping down beside his son, Tony on the other. He gave his husband a quick look, checking that he knew what they were doing.

“And you know who else we love just as much as we love each other?” Tony supplied. Peter was looking between them, a tiny bit confused. He shook his head, curls bouncing around.

“That’s you!” Steve grabbed hold of his son, wrapping him in a hug. “So sometimes, we just gotta hug and kiss you too! Loads, actually,” They were both crowding Peter’s personal space now, swaying as the boy tried acting grossed out. “No, dad! Your beard tickled tickles dad, don’t... Wait, papa! Hah.. No, stohohp, ha, noo,” They were peppering him with kisses on either side of the boys head, all over his face and back to his head. “Hahah, noonohohoaaah, please, stoahahahahaahp!”

-

2014

The end of june was always a lazy couple of weeks for the Stark-Rogers household. After the Stark Industries Expo ended, there would be a week or two with evaluations and a high that took time to come down from. After that, the last while of Peter’s school year would come up. There were always summer BBQs with the year, Peter’s soccer team, his swimming club, the list went on. 

Until Peter got out of school things were busy, but when he got out, they’d usually go straight to the summer house in the Hamptons. This year was no different, and Tony couldn’t help but grin at the idyllic situation in front of him. They had taken full advantage of the good weather and their new outdoor kitchen that day. Steve was cutting vegetables for a salad while Peter ran to and from, setting the table for them. Tony was watching the grill himself, turning baked potatoes and fish filets every now and then. 

He was snapped out of his daydreaming as his back was sprayed with a thin spray of water. Tony jumped around in fear only to find Peter, overly innocent looking and hiding a water gun behind his back. “Oh, really? That’s how it is?”

Peter giggled. “That’s how it is,”

Tony hummed, slowly turning back to the grill with a smirk. “Well, just you wait, Peter. Revenge shall be sweet…”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'd love for you to click the kudos button or leave a comment if you enjoyed this :)


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